Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Wednesday that any coming Palestinian national unity government would respect the previous peace deals signed between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

"Any government to be formed has to ... honor all kinds of agreements that were signed in the past," Abbas said at a joint news conference with visiting U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

"If this doesn't happen in the future, all options then are possible and considered except one option which is the civil war, a war that every one of us should avoid by all means," added Abbas.

The Palestinian leader underlined that there is "no indication" of a new dialogue with the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas).

Earlier in the day, Abbas said that the efforts to reach an agreement on forming a national unity government with Hamas have stopped.

Abbas has been involved in four-month-old talks with the ruling Hamas movement to form a coalition government in a bid to overcome the political and financial crises facing the government.

However, the dialogue between Abbas and Hamas had reached a stalemate over policy towards Israel.

Hamas has rejected international demands, including respecting past deals between Israel and the Palestinians.

Rice, for her part, told the conference that the U.S. would like to double its efforts to improve life conditions of the Palestinians, saying that she was discussing with other Arab leaders how to aid the Palestinian people.

"We want to go ahead towards an atmosphere that enables the Palestinians to form a government which President Abbas talked about before the UN General Assembly that meets the needs of the people and the requirements of the Quartet," said Rice.

Rice, who is on a tour to the Middle East, is due to meet the Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert later in the day in an effort to push the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians.

Rice arrived the Palestinians territories on Wednesday after her visit to Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Israel, where she met with some Fatah officials before her meeting with Abbas in Ramallah.

Source: Xinhua